Italian Renaissance: Piero della Francesca

Masterpieces of Piero della Francesca

Piero della Francesca was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was known as a mathematician and geometer as well as an artist, though he now chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its serene humanism and its use of geometric form, particularly in relation to perspective and foreshortening.

Piero was born probably in Borgo San Sepolcro, Tuscany, c. 1420 and died there October 12, 1492. Most of his work was performed in the Tuscan town of Arezzo. He may have learned his trade from one of several Sienese artists working in San Sepolcro during his youth. By 1439 Piero was working with Domenico Veneziano on frescoes for the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. He also worked in Rimini, Ferrara, and Rome. In Ferrara, his influence is particularly strong in the allegorical works of Cosimo Tura. Among his disciples is Melozzo da Forlì.

Città ideale

His deep interest in the theoretical study of perspective and his contemplative approach to his paintings are apparent in all his work, including the panels of the S. Agostino altarpiece. Among other mathematical writing, later in life he wrote a treatise, De prospectiva pingendi, on the rules of mathematical foreshortening applied to any object, be it a cube or human head.

Enigma of the Canvas depicting The Flagellation of Christ (c1460)
As discussed in its own entry, The Flagellation (Piero della Francesca) illustrates the air of geometric sobriety, in addition to presenting a perplexing enigma as to the nature of the three men at right forefront...

Frescoes for the Church of San Francesco, Arezzo (c1466)
While the unfinished facade of the indistinct church of San Francesco in the small Tuscan town of Arezzo seems an unlikely place for a masterpiece of early Renaissance; the frescoes by Piero in this church (restoration finished in 2001 after 15 years of detailed work) are a stunning achievement of Quattrocento painting. As noted by Sir Kenneth Clark, we have now reached the center of Piero's career which, ever since they were painted, have been considered his chief claim to immortality. The story in these frescoes revolves around published medieval legends as to how timber relics of the "true cross" (Leggenda della Vera Croce) came to be found. These stories were collected in the "Legenda Aurea" of Jacopo da Varazze (Jacopo da Voragine) written in mid 13th century. Piero's dramatic sense is often expressed with such restraint that we may overlook it in our admiration for his design. [1]

1. Death of Adam (390 x 747 cm)- the legend claims the tree from which the cross was made was planted, at the urging of angels, at the burial of Adam by his son, using a branch or a seed from the apple tree of the garden of Eden.
2. The Queen of Sheba in adoration of the Wood and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (336 x 747 cm)- the legend holds that Sheba worshiped the beams made from the tree, and informed Solomon, that the Saviour would hang from that tree, and thus dismember the realm of the Jews. This caused Solomon to hew it down and bury it, till it was found by the Romans.
Exaltation of the Cross (390 x 747 cm)

3. Constantine's Dream (329 x 190 cm)- Constantine before a battle is awakened by an angel who shows him the cross in heaven. With the cross on his shield, he slew the enemy, and later converted to Christianity.
4. Discovery and Proof of the True Cross (356 x 747 cm)- Helena, his mother finds the cross in Jerusalem. It was not easy to get information and "when the queen had called them and demanded them the place where our Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified, they would never tell... her. Then commanded she to burn them all" or cast them into a dry pit for seven days and there torment them with hunger. He is shown in one fresco being pulled from the pit by a rope, whereupon he confessed that Jesus was his lord and where the cross was located. The proof of the cross was that it was used to resurrect a dead men.
5. Battle between Heraclius and Chosroes (329 x 747 cm)- Finally the cross played a role in battles during the crusades.
The paintings have a sparse, often surrealist landscape- the pictorial equivalent of silence. To the modern eye, Piero's paintings show a subdued emotion, where rational theory appears to have overwhelmed naturalism. In the "battle" fresco, impassive faces dampen the action. Furthermore, when one contrasts these figures with the decorated byzantine iconography still prevalent in many contemporary Italian artists, the paucity here becomes more incisive. Most figures are in proportion. [2]. Others have pointed out the combative Christianity which these frescoes support.

Piero’s work in mathematics and geometry
Three treatises written by Piero are known to modern mathematicians: Abacus Treatise (Trattato d'Abaco), Short Book on the Five Regular Solids (Libellus de Quinque Corporibus Regularibus) and On Perspective for Painting (De Prospectiva Pingendi). The subjects covered in these writings include arithmetic, algebra, geometry and innovative work in both solid geometry and perspective. Much of Piero’s work was later absorbed into the writing of others, notably Luca da Pacioli. Piero’s work on solid geometry appears in Pacioli’s De Divina Proportione, a work illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci.

Anthology of works
the Madonna della Misericordia (c.1445)
The Flagellation (c.1460)
Montefeltro Altarpiece (1465)and paired portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (c.1472) and of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. His portraits in profile take their inspiration from Roman coins.

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It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Italian Renaissance".